Opus Kouzo
by Despite
Summary: Kouzo Fuyutsuki returned after the Third Impact to find an Ikari wanting answers. That was when his final work began.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #1

Fuyutsuki sat back in his chair after giving his clean-shaven chin a reflexive rub. "The first thing I remember, after Impact, is of course crawling out of the New Red Sea. The LCL made the sand sticky and abrasive, but I couldn't even think of the motivation that pulled me from the sea. It was like I'd just been born, again. To borrow a phrase."

"Of course, the recovery volunteers soon picked me up. I do remember being irritable enough that I actually grumbled about how they make Returnees walk up the shore alone, unaware that they aren't the only living beings on the planet. I suppose people need their rituals and beliefs, but dammnit that's how all this started."

He cleared his throat suddenly, and took a sip from his cup of green tea. "After a day or two in the recouperation ward, I started out volunteering in the Orphan's wing. Of course, I pretended to be one of the amnesiacs...I wonder how many out of the thirty or so percent of our New Tokyo-3 residents are actually lacking memories?"

"Gradually, I let myself believe that I could work at the University without arousing too much attention. I took a lot of odd-jobs on the way, but I never doubted that the risks were too high if I let the new government network sniff an old political dog like me."

"So that's where I am; laying low, consolidating my position in the fortress that once was academia. And now, here I am in a campus bakery-cafe. Drinking tea with an Ikari."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #2

"Someone told me you'd be here." Shinji said, draining his glass of coke. He looked up at the older man's alarmed look. "Don't worry, I'm not a part of the New Anglicans, or the Kyoto Protesters! I...well, some former Section-2 guys have a loose network of ex-...uhm," he quieted his voice to a whisper, looking around to make sure no-one was close, "Nerv employees. Kinda like a protective brotherhood...you know, I guess?"

Fuyutsuki shook his head gently. "No, but I can imagine why."

The boy looked away, a little guilty. "Well, they've helped me out at times, like helping me get this job. Working in a bakery is not bad, although the early starts get tiring. They took care of Asuka too...for a while we were the only Returnees, did you know that? Then more came and it was...nice. Kinda like a school camp, I guess...then they set up a temporary government, and soon it was pretty much how it used to be. Asuka and I, we didn't tell people who we were and pretty much just hid anonymously. And so here I am, baking cakes and serving coffee."

With a nod, Fuyutsuki tipped the lid on the teapot. "We're both hiding from the past, and yet here we both are. Tell me why, Shinji."

The young Ikari held his right hand in front of him idly, examining it incuriously. Then, with a burst of decision he clenched it. "I want to know...how did this happen? What was it that led to more than sixty percent of Japan's population dissapearing, and what part did I really play in it? What was it that you and Father were trying to do?"

Kouzo looked at the boy before him, whose words were spoken with a firm though controlled determination so like Gendo. The passion contained in the words themselves, however, reminded him of the other, Yui Ikari. With a sigh, he said, "And what would you do with this knowledge? You're young; you don't have to carry this with you. Let the past die, and live - it's what your mother would have wanted."

The former pilot narrowed his eyes. "But what about my Father? Would he be proud of a son who just forgot...all of that?"

Fuyutsuki sat back. He hadn't been expecting this. "Well...Gendo was determined, certainly. That you're here suggests that you're at least willing to listen to my side of the story. Either that, or you're lining me up with a voice recorder for the NT3 commision."

Shinji closed his eyes. "I just...want to know why. I can't believe that Mother, Asuka, Misato...everyone suffered so much for nothing but Father's delusions."

With a snort, Fuyutsuki answered.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #3

"So, what happened to Asuka?"

Shinji firmed the grip on his forearm and squinted. "She said she...had to go."

Kouzo winced as the shot echoed through the bunker, despite his headset. "And did you want her to?"

Lining up his aim again, the boy grimaced. "Not my business. We both had to move on..." He fired, and he put the gun down to massage his shoulder. "I've got her number, but we haven't spoken for a few weeks."

"Well. Did our friends have any news for us?"

"Uhm, well they have something on the third and fourth guys. But some of the others were in Japan during the Impact, so...come to think of it, why weren't they all here?"

"It was supposed to be a global...no, Universal event. But I suspect you know more about why that wasn't the case than I do."

The teenager nodded as he finished reloading his gun. "It was...a gift. From a friend."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

* * *

Opus Kouzo part #4

* * *

Shinji grit his teeth as he adjusted the focus on the long-bore rifle balanced on the rooftop. The scope was padded, but he hated the feel of it against his face. Or maybe that was just his irritability, crouched as he was thirty floors up on a building, unsheltered from the brisk evening winds.

(Coast is clear, as at twenty-two-hundred-oh-three.)

(Thankyou Getbacker. Triplet, do you have a bead?)

"Yeah..."

(Triplet, please confirm bead.)

"Uh, confirm I have a bead, Geri. Just...not as easy as I remembered..."

(Understood. Stand by.)

Air whistled through the young man's teeth as he shifted slightly, his joints sore from holding his kneeling position in the cold night air.

(Target has entered the firing zone. Fire at your discretion, Triplet.)

With a deep breath, Shinji answered. "Yes sir."

He clenched his hand in preparation before shifting it to the trigger. "Target in the center..." he mumbled ironically.

Making a fine adjustment to the focus, Shinji attempted to control his breathing. His heart was beating too fast, his body unable to stay still enough. Steeling his resolve, the former Third Child clicked in the initial trigger.

The world shrank to the target in his lens and the beating of his heart.

'Okay!' he thought, pulling the trigger. Immediately, he felt the kickback and spiderwebs formed on the window in his scope.

There was a shout through the radio. (Missed!)

With a gasp he pulled back from the rifle, tense and ready to bolt.

(What happened?)

(Kirsch-I mean, the target moved...or something...!)

(Is he calling the cops?!)

(Wait...)

Shaking, Shinji leant back and listened to the chattering narrow-band with wide eyes.

(This is Geri, moving into the fire zone.)

(Sensei...!)

(It's alright. The first phase removed the internal security. It's just old man versus old man.)

"Sensei!"

(Triplet, keep an eye on me could you?)

"Uh...hai! Geri!"

* * *

An old man with a thin face and thin grey hair was facing towards the cracked window with indifferent curiosity. He spoke as the assasin entered. "So, who sent you young man?"

Fuyutsuki had to chuckle at that. He allowed himself a wry smile as he pulled the black balaclava from his face.

The older man in the leather recliner sat up in surprise, dropping a leather-bound book onto the floor. "Kouzo Fuyutsuki...! I can't say that black fatigues really suit you. Let me guess; Ikari came back from the slime just to spite me."

Kouzo tucked the silenced handgun into his waistband and hit his gloved hands together to dislodge the talcum powder. "I'm here with Ikari, but this was my scenario."

The wizened creature spat irritably. "Pah! That's what he wants you to believe. So? Gonna finish the job your sniper-pup messed up yourself?"

"Actually, that sniper is Ikari. Shinji Ikari. The son."

Kirsch was surprised enough to drop his outrage. "The boy, eh? Third Child? Killed the first one, Sachiel, before he even had any training?"

Fuyutsuki nodded an affirmation.

The old man gave him a skeptical look "And he missed?"

He shrugged. "No MAGI to filter the signals travelling down his spine up on the Telcorp building, Anders."

The old German nodded. "That so? How about that. What about Ikari, Gendo I mean? Hasn't come back I hope." As Kouzo shook his head, he grinned. "Good! Now, before you get on with your grizzly 'scenario', pull up a chair and join me for a final drink. Oh, and call the boy in. I'd like to meet him."

The former Supreme Commander hesitated for a moment. With a small nod, he spoke through his radio. "Triplet, disengage and join us in the fire zone."

(Sensei?!)

"Code Yellow. Getbacker, keep an eye out for us."

(Uh...hai, Sensei.)

(Roger that, Geri.)

"The drinks cabinet is behind me. Not of the same standard as my pre-Impact collection, but good enough."

Kouzo took out three glasses. "I must admit, I was surprised to find you living in a relatively modest apartment. Scotch?"

"Go ahead, there's ice under the cabinet. Make mine a sherry though. Tell me, you're here because I was the easiest one to find?"

"Mmm." Fuyutsuki agreed noncomittaly.

The elder watched as he poured. "You want the boy to hear this."

"He has a lot of naivety I have to knock out of him."

On queue, Shinji entered the room. "Uhm...Konbanwa, Kirsch-san." he said uncertainly.

Kirsch nodded in reply. "Third Child, welcome. I take it your palatte hasn't developed much - a muscat for the rugrat if you would be so kind, Kouzo."

Shinji fidgeted under the SEELE member's gaze as Fuyutsuki poured the drink. He looked up as he was handed a glass.

"We're not here socially," the former Sub-Commander muttered under his breath.

Kirsch indicated for the two to sit, which they did on a pair of well-upholstered lounge chairs facing the recliner.

Anders held up his sherry in a toast. "To our just desserts! Proste!"

The other two drank uncomfortably, but politely. Then, Fuyutsuki raised his glass. "To our lost brethren, sleeping still."

Kirsch made a wry face but drank anyway.

"To...those that have returned." Shinji said, his cheeks a little red from the unaccustomed alcohol intake.

"Idealist." muttered the old man. "You should drink to Justice, or perhaps more honestly, Revenge. Here I am, the weakest link in the Committee, so here you are."

Shinji sat his glass down. "Why don't you tell us what happened to you after Impact, Kirsch-san?"

"Now down to business, eh?" the Kirsch muttered. "Very well. When I returned, I felt a way I hadn't for well over half a century. I felt...free. I could have been just another old man, perhaps a grandfather looking for his family, not one of the rich and terrible masters pulling the world's strings. But then...an illness dragged me back to earth, a horrid gastic upset. Nothing too serious, but I found myself a feeble, stinking patient in one of the hosiptal wards overflowing with the distraught Returnee's."

"Paradise lost." Fuyutsuki muttered.

"That was a painful experience." Kirsch said before continuing. "Anyway, it was...just too tempting to go back to my old self after that. I reactivated my bank accounts, ate at a four-star restaurant, slept in my own bed again. Even so, I could tell I was missing something. So I sold that mansion, 'forgot' most of my other assets, and gave the majority of my cashables to the Civil Resucitation Fund, all trying to find that liberty again. However..."

The boy nodded sadly. "I think...I can understand that, Kirsch-san. Did you try to contact any of your family or friends? Business partners...?"

The old man chewed his lip before answering. "No. My work was my life before impact, after all. But even if I had...I won't betray my comrades. Despite your righteous feelings, we of the Committee were trying to help secure mankind's future. We did many wrong things, but it was in the name of preserving mankind's very existence!"

Fuyutsuki snorted sardonically. "By turning us into a stagnant monument."

Kirsch actually growled at that. "And what was Ikari's plan? Build an infinite playpen for him and his dead wife!"

"That doesn't make your instrumentality any better a future." Fuyutsuki retorted.

"Hmmph. What good does finger-pointing do now anyway? For better or worse, the future belongs to other now. Still, I'm glad to hear about Ikari. Unless...you didn't Complement with him, did you?!"

"I don't think I've ever been so insulted. And before you ask, I don't believe he complemented with his son, either."

"Hmmph, I should have guessed. No doubt he's swimming about all mixed up with his dead wife, or that other abomination of his. Who knows, maybe both? Who cares if amoeba sleep around, eh?"

Shinji tensed slightly at that, but Fuyutsuki surreptitiously held out a restraining hand. "Who knows?" he said. "In any case, Gendo Ikari is now...irrelevant." The word left his tongue dripped in irony with a black and licorice taste.

Shinji looked at Kirsch speculatively. "Kirsch-san...do you think that we're here for revenge?"

Rolling his eyes, the old man snorted. "Don't tell me it's because I'm a menace to society."

With a small, ironic grin Shinji nodded. "Truthfully, I'm not entirely certain why this has to be done. Not yet."

Silently, Fuyutsuki stood. Shinji followed suit, apprehension writ on his young face.

"I'm sorry, Anders, but you knew this wasn't a social call." The former Sub-Commander of Nerv said, pulling the gun from his waistband.

"Wait." commanded Kirsch from his seated position, staring out of the cracked window. "Boy. Shinji Ikari. You do it."

There was a pause as Shinji froze.

"It'll only get harder from here." the former SEELE member pointed out.

Looking an askance from his mentor, Shinji reluctantly took the proffered weapon.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #5

* * *

Shinji inspected his cards, trying not to grimace. "Do we know for sure that Getbacker was caught?"

Placing a chip, the white-haired old man kept his blank expression with practised ease. "Every indication is that she was captured. SEELE is rebuilding it's power base, and it's entirely possible that taking Kirsch out forced them to accelerated their plans."

The boy threw down a chip. "I never got to meet her. In person I mean." he mumbled sadly. "Was she someone you knew from...before?"

Kouzo discarded casually. "Not really. She was an affiliate of the Marduk institution."

Shinji snapped his own cards down with a frown. "I thought they were one of SEELE's puppets?"

Fuyutsuki shook his head. "No, it was one of ours. Or rather, one of Gendo's initiatives."

"Hmmph." the boy said, folding. "Father...if it were him here, I'd be sure that she'd been sacrificed to make SEELE less nervous."

Leaning back in his chair, Kouzo waited for his protege to deal in silence.

Setting the deck in the middle of the table, Shinji sighed. "Sensei...what did Kirsch mean when he asked if you had 'Complemented' with Father?"

The room was still for a moment. Shinji's ears rang in the silence, waiting for the old man to respond. Finally he did, leaning forwards to pick up his whisky glass. Kouzo let the fiery liquor dance on his tongue before speaking. "People don't speak about it, normally. When people...'found' each other in the Sea of Instrumentality, sometimes they...coalesced. Lovers or family members normally, or other strongly bonded individuals. My understanding, from the Returnee's ward, was that it was sometimes not mutually consensual. If the Complemented pair (or occasionally more) chose to Return, usually one personality would dominate. The one who wanted to return most, typically. It was...something of an insult when Kirsch insinuated that I had Complemented with Gendo - he was basically saying we were lovers."

Shinji sat in silence, digesting the concept while Kouzo took another swig and set his glass on the table again. "So...the Impact,...Father was trying to Complement with Mother. But she didn't return to the Sea..."

Kouzo nodded, putting his cards down.

"Poor Father..."

* * *

Kouzo grabbed Shinji's jacket off the rack and threw it at the seated teen. Considering the Kevlar lining and hidden spare clip, it was far from a trifling act. "We've had word that 04 is on the move, headed for mainland China. We've got to move.

The teenager acted immediately, finding the arms in the jacket with practised ease before checking the handgun in his waistband. "The airfield?"

"Mmm. Sergei and Takuma are already on their way, we'll go with the mercs in the APC." Fuyutsuki explained, barely pausing to let Shinji catch up as he strode through the corridor to the garage.

The corridor opened up into an almost empty cavern. "Uh...where's the APC?" Shinji asked.

"Those idiots must have left without us." Kouzo growled, reaching for his phone. "Sabre, this is Falcon. Have you departed? Over."

(Falcon, this is Sabre. We are en-route to Akihabara, repeat en-route to Akihabara. Over.)

"Damn." Kouzo swore, running a hand through his sparse silver hair. "Understood, Sabre. Keep me updated on progress. Over."

(Roger that, Falcon. Sabre, Out.)

"They ditched us." Shinji frowned. "Why...would they do that?"

Fuyutsuki favoured him with an ironic grin. "An old man and a kid? I think I can see their logic."

Shinji snorted. "I might be a kid, but I'm no rookie. How many Angels have those mercenaries taken out?"

In spite of everything, Kouzo laughed. "How many Eva's do we have at our disposal?" he pointed out, fondly patting Shinji's head (much to the teenager's disgust). "More's the pity - we could use some Technology of God to tackle SEELE."

"Hmmph. So what now?"

Kouzo pointed at a Range Rover parked in the vast garage. "We get the hell out of here, and monitor the situation. Chuck your rifle in just in case, and we'll go to the staging area but keep our distance. Think you can avoid burning the clutch this time?"

"No promises." Shinji told him blandly.

* * *

Looking through the rear-view mirror, Shinji had a moment of bemusement that he was driving away from a battlefield. Not walking triumphant in an Evangelion, not flying unconscious or defeated in a plug, not even shuffling as a shocked civilian. He was driving as a willing participant, having fired the killing shot that may or may not have been necessary to take out their objective. Smoke, sweat and tears now lay behind him.

It also lay ahead. But Shinji was okay with that.

"Sensei," he said over the drone of the car, "I need to know. What are we fighting?"

"Finally, you ask." Kouzo grunted from the passenger seat, field phone sat loosely in his lap. "I'd begun to think you'd just keep following me blindly forever."

The teenager nodded, not taking his eyes off the road. "So maybe I'm changing. What are SEELE's motives? Why did they do all this; set up NERV and GEHIRN, bankrupt the post-impact economies? Why did they cause Third Impact?"

Fuyutsuki rubbed his shaven jaw for a moment before answering. "Those 'Old Men' weren't just in it for the power and glory. They were scared, feeble-minded fools."

"Feeble-minded old fools with enough power to turn a working mother into an Angel."

"Hmmph. The conservative mindset, especially those who knew of the Katsuragi Expedition, saw the Second Impact as a warning from god; 'play nice, or I shall smite thee'. Combining this thought with the extremes of ancient religious texts, as interpreted by unbiased AIs, eventually saw the conservative scholars declare that our future was to return to the Garden of Eden - that is, forsake knowledge and freedom, for the security of the baby's crib. That was Instrumentality. That...was the Third Impact."

"Religion? It was all about religious beliefs?"

The old man snorted in amusement. "Naturally - this time, it was a mix of the religions of the Ancient World and the religion of Science."

Shinji changed gear, shaking the vehicle as he clumsily engaged the clutch. "Why was Father involved? Why was Mother involved? And me, why was _I_ involved?!" he demanded.

"Someone had to be." Kouzo said, closing his eyes before dozing off to the sounds of the night road.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

* * *

Opus Kouzo part #6

Still groggy from the pistol-whipping, Shinji felt rather than saw the hard basalt floor of the cell. Heavy doors swung, squalling against poorly maintained hinges. Gingerly, he felt around his mouth with his tongue, aware of the sharp metallic taste of blood. It took an effort of will to move, but knowing that he had to do so before the adrenalin was overridden by pain, he forced himself into a sitting position up against a stone wall.

Soul-sick, he made a half-hearted attempt to quantify his situation before exhaustion and hopelessness led him to the haven of sleep. Time passed, the cold seeping from the stone floor into his bones.

Waking with a shiver, Shinji couldn't say how many hours he had been asleep. Back still leant against the stone wall, the teenager sat in a stupor as the last vestiges of sleep faded. A wry smile threatened to reawaken the pain along his badly bruised jaw - the ceiling seemed vaguely familiar. It seemed that SEELE's idea of confinement cell architecture was similar to NERV's.

'Prisoner again.' he thought. 'This time, it's my body that's trapped.'

The hours passed, and Shinji's mind wandered. Random oddments flirted with with his thoughts. The trials and triumphs of his and Fuyutsuki-Sensei's plans. The taste of fresh sweet corn and tinned bamboo shoots. The omnipotent solace of the Sea of Instrumentality. Those few weeks, surviving in an empty world with Asuka, the uneasy truce growing into a comforting familiarity, and then fading to an uncertain restlessness.

But, try as he might, Shinji's mind was irresistibly drawn to the time in the Returnee's Ward.

"Oh hell...I don't want to remember..."

Not all Returnees could be said to be fit for the real world again. Some souls of the Returnees, merged or tangled, broken or twisted, were able to generate only weak or inconsistent AT fields. For a time, Shinji was counted among their number.

"No...I was stronger than that...I could live...I didn't want to go back!"

For a time, Shinji was another lost soul. Another Flying Dutchman, with no port to call into and tether. Awash in each others sickened thoughts, only a few could break free of the mental whirlpools where discorporate minds enmeshed.

Before he was swept out to madness, though, Shinji managed to snare an anchor.

"Misato...Misato was there. She held on to me. I still had her cross. I still had it...I still had it then."

The cross had disappeared before the end. The pendant had been a talisman, but somehow losing it wasn't the losing of hope.

"Mistato san...thankyou. You left it with me, and I had to look after it until you needed it back again. You took it back then, because I was whole."

The boy, slayer of Angels, had been abandoned all his life. Finally, he was ready to abandon life. And so the boy did so.

"I'm still here..."

And so the man, Shinji Ikari, was born.

"Sorry, it took us a while to find you."

Shinji's left eye was caked with blood, but was unbruised. After a moment he was able to see his rescuer. "Kaji-san."

A strong arm helped him to his feet. "What, thought you'd finally seen the last of me? Jeez, Kouzo's gonna be pissed. Look at you! Better yet, don't."

"Did you...did we get him?"

Supporting the teenager over his shoulders, Kaji chuckled. "We got him. Francesco Arthur Phillipe, aka SEELE 07, has a bullet in a space which he previously reserved for plotting political and bureaucratic corruption like no other. A man truly after my heart...nearly got it, too. Damn western sabers. I got him first, though."

"I'm glad..."

Kaji used his free arm to reach down to his waist. "Now...you wouldn't be able to wield a gun right now by any chance, would you?"

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

* * *

Opus Kouzo part #7

* * *

Kouzo stared at the form under his pen, slightly hunched over an old-fashioned wooden desk. Blinking his eyes, the old man finally gave up and sat back, massaging the bridge of his nose. "The more things change..." he sighed under his breath.

His office overlooked a medium-sized warehouse where, after much effort and pulling of strings, legitimate business was taking place amongst the stock shelves and conveyor belts. More than sixty percent of his staff had nothing to do with the Purge, and Shinji worked under the cover of being just another labourer.

Fuyutsuki grinned fractionally as one of the young ladies in his employ made an obvious ploy for Shinji's attention.

His amusement was interrupted by a voice from the doorway. "Cute, ain't it? I assume Asuka got his cherry, but it'd be good to see him find someone for himself."

Kouzo grunted. "Well, he'd might as well live life when he can. Still, it'd be tragic if a dashing young man of action had to leave someone special behind when a bigger cause called."

Kaji shrugged. "These things happen - makes the reunion all the sweeter, right?"

"You should know. Or is there a possibility that your reunion in particular went a little too far?"

"Heh. I think I see why Gendo kept you around all that time. A position of power can always benefit from a cunning linguist."

"Feh. Are you here to tell me something useful, or just practise your double entendres?"

"Mmm. Something interesting came from my Kyoto contact. SEELE is working very hard to track us down it seems, and by working hard I mean bribing hard. How solid are the people you got this cover from?"

The older man leaned an elbow on the desk. "I knew Ryoga before I got caught up in Gehirn, but that was an epoch or two ago."

"Not someone you'd trust your life with?"

"Not if I had an alternative."

Kouzo stared for a moment as Kaji leaned himself against the doorway in an uncharacteristic fashion. "We're being forced to trust people we don't really know." he said, his tone of voice betraying his lover's nuances.

"Hmmph. Neither Shinji or I expect to survive any longer than the laws of luck and chance allow. Frankly, I never expected us to get this far. That doesn't mean that you can't walk away - I of all people can understand if you find covert operations a bit old-hat by now."

Kaji flashed his trademark grin. "And yet, you're still here Sensei. But you're right; we all need an objective to keep us in the game."

Fuyutsuki narrowed his eyes. "You're going to sell me something, aren't you?"

Nodding curtly, Kaji replied as he moved to face him. "Yup. It's much easier when everyone is on the same page."

"So, what do you want?"

The former agent leaned forward on the desk, looking directly into Kouzo's eyes. "Do you know where Asuka is?"

He didn't blink. "No."

"Good. Does Shinji?"

Fuyutsuki frowned. "I'm not sure."

Kaji nodded. "I'll speak to him. I've tasked myself with protecting her while you two cowboys go poking guns at the most dangerous men on the planet. If you keep her out of it, I'll lend you two a hand when I can."

"You're protecting her? I see...both of you think of her as a daughter."

"Something like that. Okay, here's my top tip - there's an ex-US cruiser in Old Tokyo bay, now in private hands. You can guess who's. Happy fishing."

* * *

Thanks to those (few!) who review - the messages are appreciated and certainly spur on new chapters.

A side note: this story is a prequel of sorts to my oneshot "Shinji's Solution".

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it. Nor any characters or aspects of Yakushiji Ryoko No Kaiki Jikenbo.

* * *

Opus Kouzo part #8

* * *

Shinji stirred his glass of coke with a straw nervously, hiding his cringe when Himari stroked his shin with her foot unsubtly under the table. 'How did I get into this?'

It wasn't that Shinji wasn't flattered and somewhat turned-on; he just had no idea what he should do.

Or what he wanted to do.

"Shinji..."

The teenager quickly turned his attention back to his date. "Hai, Himari-san?"

She looked away shyly. "I'm sorry...I thought...I'm not very good at this sort of thing."

Embarrased, Shinji scratched the back of his neck in trademark style. "Th-that's okay. I'm not, either."

Fidgeting with her short black hair nervously, the younger girl licked her lips and then took a nervous sip from her glass of cola, darting like a startled bird. Squaring her shoulders, she swallowed before saying, "I...have never been on a date before!"

Shinji gulped in surprise. "Uhm...m-me either..." he said, placing his shaking hand on the table to steady it, forcing himself not to clench his fist. He looked cautiously at his date, only to see her looking at him with her own surprise.

Smiling, he tilted his head. "I guess, uh...this is our first date. For both of us, I mean.

Himari smiled back with a giggle. Picking her glass, she tapped it against his. "Happy first date!" she toasted.

Bemused, Shinji picked his glass up as well and they clinked them together again. Their waitress walked past and gave them a strange look. The two kids looked at each other, and laughed.

* * *

(Update?)

"I had to use the uninhibitor, but it worked. They're definitely bonding."

(Good. I take it without the agent, they'd be be stuck at the awkward stage?)

"In a word, yes, sir."

(As expected. Well done. As long as he doesn't see her as a one-night stand.)

"I doubt that, sir."

(Mmm. Good work.)

"Thankyou, sir. By the way...are you free after work?"

(You didn't self-medicate now, did you?)

"N-no!"

(Hmmph. I'll see you back at base. Out.)

* * *

Turning the page of his newspaper, Fuyutsuki casually glanced out of the window of the high-rise cafe he was sitting in. Alone in his booth, he sat back-to-back with a sunglasses-and-business suit clad red-haired woman, seperated by a small fern between them of notable sound-blocking ineptitude.

"That's quite the pleasure barge down there." the elder man sniffed, glancing downwards to the docks some distance away.

The woman drank from her teacup daintily. "Amazing what perks having your fingers in all the fattest, juicies pies can get you."

"Even in a previous life, it seems. Still, it is surprising that any private concern could get hold of first-rate military hardware on this scale."

"Third Impact loosened the ties between government property and government, it seems. Not that such bonds were particularly strong in the circles walked by certain types anyway. I seem to recall an entire city given over to the control of one man, albeit under a small committee, funded by the taxpayers of the world not such a long time ago."

"Point taken. I suppose this also falls under the category, 'think big, lie bigger'. Can you give us specifications? Inventory?"

"It's possible. Would you like me to quote on reinforcements, while I'm at it?"

Kouzo snorted as he turned a page in his paper. "I'm afraid not."

"You may find my organising to be quite accomodating."

"What makes you think it's a matter of your prices?"

The woman sighed and bit delicately into a piece of orange cake. "Many people lost out in the Impact. Please, we would only ask a token fee."

The grey-haired old man folded his newspaper, putting it down beside him. "You want to buy into our war?"

"We would not want the information we provide you with to be wasted, and especially not to fail due to insufficient resources."

There was silence as a serving girl refilled Kouzo's cup. The woman resumed when she was safely out of earshot.

"I know that you'd like to avoid entangling alliances, but you can't really take this one on by yourselves."

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Fuyutsuki leaned back. "Get me that information, and I'll see if I can work you into our plans."

"You drive a hard bargain!"

"Yes." Kouzo folded the paper beneath his arm and stood. "There will be no backing out if you join us. SEELE would hunt us all down to the ends of the world. And you won't be able to question when or how you'll be fit into our plans."

The woman stood and faced him, forcing him to stop pretending he wasn't aware of her. "I thought you'd say that. Which is why I'll be coordinating our joint operations with you directly. Monami Yakushiji, CEO of JACES, at your service sir."

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #9

* * *

"This things smells like a plug suit."

Shinji stretched his shoulders subtly, trying to ignore the sensation of his sweat being absorbed by the stealth skinsuit he wore. Infra-red and radar absorbing, the high-mobility suit also made him sweat like a pig as he stooped over his weapon. Sporting an advanced neural interface with a passing resemblence to the A10 link utilised by Project-E, he was linked to a prototype compact rail gun, salvaged by JACES from the ruins of a JSSDF research lab. It was now set up in a high-rise office overlooking the bay area.

Pensively, The Third Child checked the event timer and decided he had time for one last target check. Patiently, he willed the device to select and aim for his pre-selected targets through the 3D simulated layout (updated with stereo image capture on a millesecond interval) of the private battleship that SEELE had acquired.

"Okay...midships, emergency power inverters, check. Ordnance deck, auxilliary power generator fuel system, check. And...engine room, primary and tertiary cooling cores, check."

With a sigh, Shinji toggled the display off and knelt by the three thermos-flask sized objects that were connected by thick wires to the building's power supply and the rail gun. Opening a panel on each of them, he typed in his passcode into the exposed keypads. One at a time, they responded with a muted whistling, whirling sound until the pitch reached a peak whereupon a dim LED lit up on their tops.

Standing to take control of the rifle once more, Shinji counted down the seconds before the CRG automatically selected his targets (under his supervision) and fired with three muted thumps. He then started packing the equipment up, wishing his comrades well as they took on the now-disabled warship's crew in a direct firefight.

* * *

With a gasp, Fuyutsuki tripped over and landed on his rifle. Grimacing, he sat up on the grimey wharf surface as chaos unfolded around him. They had chosen dusk for the attack, and his ears rang from the hellish screams and thunderbolt explosions as Monami's troops fired bazookas at the now lightly-defended vessel. His own troops ran past him in their dozens, machine guns held aloft and firing at the similarly-equipped defending crew. Standing in his slightly worse-for-wear black assault suit, the old man narrowed his eyes. "What, you thought this was going to be easy?" he muttered to himself. "I'm definitely too old for this sort of thing."

Determinedly, he ran after his troops, hoping to catch up with his own squad. As he approached the pier, he saw that the decks had already been cleared of hostiles and the few machine-gun ports on the thoroughly twenty-first century battleship had been caked with exploded epoxy grenades, rendering them useless. His squad was on deck, surrounding an entrance.

The Cracker glanced around and smiled through his helmet. "Wanna do the honors?"

Kouzo gave a grim nod, and took out a smoke grenade in readiness. "One, Two, THREE!" the Cracker roared, hoisting open the armoured doors with his mechanical-advantage device. Fuyutsuki rolled in his grenades and stood aside.

"Let's get 'em."

* * *

The SEELE member, who's present and only identifiable alias was Doctor Carol Neils, considered replacing the clip in her semi-automatic pistol before deciding against it. The next few minutes determined her future, but she couldn't see the advantage in an extra two shots. This would be settled, she decided, with less than four rounds.

She and her top men had assumed defensive positions in the vessel's tactical briefing room. Despite being a warship, the Tac-Ops was not a particularly fortified area - a taken ship is a taken ship after all. The bridge was as dimly lit in battery backup lighting (all of the controls were out, of course) and worse for cover than Tac-Ops, so the little administrative business room became the arena for their last stand.

"They're at the door." her right-hand man reported over the clanging and reverberations as the aft doorway came under assault.

"Couldn't even ring the doorbell first. Really, is this the man that held Ikari and Keele at arm's length during negotiations?" she seethed.

"Maybe it's that kid. Bit of a temper on that one." he replied, looking over the barrel of his gun, his aim fixed at chest-height through the door.

The door gave an internal groan as the locking mechanism was strained well beyond it's rated limits.

Dr. Neils narrowed her eyes as the door finally surrendered. Smoke billowed in through the opening, lit up sharply in the gloom by the invader's paralysingly bright spotter's lamps. The man who had cracked the doorway open loomed in, then stepped aside to let a rather more spare man in armour enter. Carol held up a staying hand to her men.

The man spoke. "Sorry for the rather forced entry, but I thought it better to meet like this than to arrange a meetup through your usual people."

"Fuyutsuki," she said, her voice cold and hard. "This isn't quite the retirement that the Committee had foreseen for you."

"Mmm. As nice as a restful retirement would have been, I prefer this to the eternal sleep you no doubt had planned, along with the rest of your many minions."

The Doctor shook her head regretfully. "If Ikari hadn't perverted the path, we would have all lived the life eternal. But with you and his dead wife whispering in his ears..."

"Well. Enough nostalgia for now, Doctor. If you could surrender, we will lead you off this derelict. We have prepared some facilities to process you all before we decide how to proceed. Once we've done that, we can have some nice long chats. Tell me, I seem to remember you preferring single-malts?"

"Go to hell." Neils snorted in disgust. Lifting her gun and aiming it at the Professor, she squeezed off a shot into his thigh, then immediately threw down her gun and lifted her arms up. "We surrender." she said, gaving a bitter laugh as the old man crumpled to the decking.

* * *

Shinji sighed heavily, irritated by the harsh fluorescent lights overhead as he sat in wait. Sitting up to look at his watch, he shook his head in morose amusement. Fuyutsuki wouldn't be pleased that he was standing up his first (official) date.

_"You should date the girl. It'll be good for you, and it also can't do our cover any harm."_

_"Uhh...but I'd hate to, well, lead her on or anything..."_

_"Hmmph. Don't be so noble, Shinji. First relationships invariably fail in the long run. They're a necessary stepping stone in life, which you'd both might as well experience together. It's you or someone else for her, so why not you?"_

_"But why do I need to, well...it's not like I...need to really think about the future..."_

_"Shinji...your melodrama is irritating. Honestly, if it weren't for your father I would have never have put up with it back at NERV. Date the girl. Unless you abuse her, lead her on unnecessarily or any other behaviour which, frankly you're not capable of, then both of you will benefit in the long run."_

_"But..."_

_"That's enough. Let me know when you want the night off, and let her know after work. We have more immediate concerns. For instance, these prisoner processing room..."_

_Shinji sighed. "We've got the use of a small clinic. ..."_

"Hmmph." the boy leant back in the visitor's chair, only to see a doctor approach.

"Shinji Matsuda?" the prim-looking woman in hospital garb asked.

"Hai." Shinji replied, standing up.

"Matsuda-san, please come this way." she said, beckoning into the hallway.

"Is he alright?"

"He won't be walking for some time, but the arteries in his thigh were not damaged. Uhh...are you his grandson?"

"Adopted. After..."

"I understand."

Shinji had to smile wryly at that. "Yeah..."

_Fuyustuki poured whisky into each of their glasses, oblivious to the fact that Shinji's was indeed overflowing. Unsteadily, Shinji carefully co-ordinated his hand to pick up his glass, and was only mildly perterbed when some inevitably spilled._

_"To ther futcher" Fuyutsuki slurred, holding up his glass._

_Flushed betroot, Shinji attempted to follow suit (but only raising his glass to elbow height) "Kampai!"_

_"And therr past..."_

_"Kam-paii!!"_

_"Y'know, Shinji. Your parents. I made them meet, 'cha know that?"_

_"Nooo...your knew Mother?"_

_"Mmm...my best student. So beautiful..."_

_Shinji screwed up his face. "Then...why weren't you my Daddz?" Then he started giggling. "Nooooo...glasses... would look so bad on you!"_

_Fuyutsuki burst out laughing. "Hah! Heh heh...yeah." He stared into his empty shotglass. "Yui..."_

Shinji shook his head in amusement. "Probably about as well as I do." he mused under his breath.

---

Kouzo lay in his bed, shivering in a cold sweat in his sleep. A grimace passed like a shadow over his wizened features.

A ghost with red-tinted glasses smirked down at him. "Fuyutsuki, I'll leave this to you."

He opened his eyes to find himself in a hospital bed. Sickly, he forced himself to sit up, and covered his eyes with his hands. "Oh, Kami..." he groaned.

---


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #10

* * *

Shinji sat himself back down onto the holding room's bare metal seat, face grey and grim. In silence, he observed the malevolent counternance opposite him.

Carol Neils smirked. "You don't know how to do this. Kouzo didn't prepare you for this kind of dirty work." The smirk grew. "Could it be that your mentor is layed-up, and all because of me?"

Reflexively, Shinji's right hand flexed under the spartan desk. "Handling prisoners wasn't part of my NERV training, no. But...maybe SEELE membership included a few lessons in counter-interrogation techniques, right?" Shinji said in a low voice.

Neils sat back on her chair, hands bound but otherwise looking reasonably comfortable. "Oh, but you misunderstand. To get into SEELE, nothing less than a long history of politics, dirty money and spoilt innocence is a passport. But it is good to see you've somewhat grown out of your awkward, naive phase. Nothing less from the child of Yui and Gendo...'Ikari'." She tipped her head and gave Shinji a dangerous smile.

"He took my mother's name. I hope that wasn't the best psychological joker you have to play."

"Hmmph. That certainly would be embarrasing." the woman lounged back, looking content. "Too bad Gendo played the bastard card so heavily - if he hadn't pushed you away so hard, you might have come to join us. You've certainly taken the character of one of our own to heart."

Shinji sighed tolerantly. "Oh?"

She smiled, a a cat landing her paw on the mouse. "Agent Kaji, naturally. Although he did like to freelance on the side, he was a very capable man. You didn't have to copy his unsightly stubble, though."

"It has a certain practicality. Now, can we get down to business?"

Neils tried to look contrite. "Oh, my zinger didn't impress you? Well. You have grown up."

"Third impact can do that to a man."

"To a boy, whom I watched screaming at monsters, calling for your mother to make them go away."

"That's desperate."

"Perhaps." Suddenly the strong, powerful lady turned into a greying, over-worked beaurocrat. "Here I am, hauranged by a kid barely old enough to shave in a broken world. Maybe I could find just cause to feel a little desperate."

Shinji nodded gently, giving her a moment to compose herself. "Take your time."

The erstwhile doctor gave him a look that was at once grateful and pitying. "The worst of it is, this is the most relaxed I've been for decades. No responsibility, no world to screw over or save, no elusive destiny for a trusted colleague to **** up beyond all conceivable belief. Just a bit of verbal sparring, and the hope that you're only half as cruel as your father."

Shinji leant forward, sensing that she was done. "We'll see. Now - what is SEELE up to?"

Neils sneered and looked away. "Pah. What makes you and your Old Man think we're up to anything? Impact is over - there is no Technology of God left. We were the driving force of the post-impact world - people of vision and ability, pushing what remains of humanity we could to the nirvana we had sighted. So of course, when humanity has been once again plunged into darkness, what do you think we're doing?"

"So you're building humanity back into civilisation? Replacing our governments and infrastructure?" The young Ikari raised an eyebrow ironically. "With a battleship, an underground spy network and several small armies."

Neils rolled her eyes. "We seem to have been encountering some...resistance."

* * *

"Is this your way of testing him?"

Kouzo looked up from his hospital bed, exhasperation written in his expression. "I'm not exactly in a position to interrogate the woman. She shot me down. That doesn't exactly give me any mental high-ground to work with."

"You could have prepared him better." Monami Yakushiji spun on her heel to look out through the simulated hospital window. "I have people better suited for such a task. Why did you give it to him? Is it a part of grooming him as your successor?"

Fuyutsuiki lay back down, repressing a shudder. "No, no...I'm giving him his chance. If he can do this, we can take this all the way. If not, well...perhaps we'll leave our organisation in someone else's good hands."

"So you are testing him."

"...I guess so, yes."

"Hmmph. It's a lot you expect from him. And yet you let so much ride on this - I know you don't trust me to deal with SEELE in a way that would suit your sense of ethics. Unless...wait, perhaps you want him to choose not to do this anymore."

"..."

"Why? Why now? Maybe you regret what you're making him into."

"I don't want him to be like his father. Which is what I'm making him into."

"Maybe he wants to be like his father!"

"Then maybe it's me who I'm trying to save."

"Save yourself from what? Bringing down SEELE, or turning the boy into his father?"

Kouzo shrugged cryptically.

"You should have given this task to me."

Kouzo rolled his eyes. "Hmmph. You don't want prosperity. You want to feed your vendetta."

"Yes," she said quietly, wrapping an arm around herself in sad reflection. "And so does the boy."

* * *

"Sensei...you look...well."

Shinji's greeting in the small hallway by a set of wooden stairs caught Kouzo a little unprepared. Dressing-gown clad, he had been making his way back to his room after answering Nature's call. "You mean I look old." He sighed, leaning on his hospital-supplied cane with regretful acceptance.

"Well, at least it suits you." The boy winced as Kouzo swung the cane at his temple, but the mirth-filled grin wasn't wiped from his face even when the tip touched his ear.

"How did your date with that girl go? She did agree to a second one, right?"

Try as he might, Shinji couldn't help but blush a little. "Yes."

"And how did it go?"

"Ah, well...uhm, yeah it was...good. Great!"

"Ah. First base?"

The young man looked away. "Uhm...I don't want to tell you."

"First base is kissing, Shinji."

"Oh. Err...half-way?"

"Ah. She kissed you on the cheek."

Shinji blushed, unsure of if he was embarrased by the questioning or the fact that it had only gone that far. "W-well...anyway, w-we're going to watch a movie on Wednesday."

"Hmm. Your choice of movie, or hers?"

The boy fidgeted before answering. "Uhm, well...hers, technically. She chose the one I mentioned..."

"Smart girl. She'll have you wrapped around her little finger in no time."

A full, techinicolor blush. "Sensei!"

Fuyutsuki grinned. "Don't worry, that's a good thing." he said with a chuckle.

Blush still fully evident, Shinji digested this before nodding sagely. "I...well, maybe."

Silence claimed the hallway, each other basking in the intimate glow of having a comrade. After a spell, it was Shinji who broke the silence. "This is nice. Almost like...we're normal."

Kouzo nodded, amused grinning melted into a grim frown.

"I like this, Sensei. It's nice to be...normal." the boy said, his voice a little panicked, a little lost.

Fuyutsuki grimaced. "I'm sorry it couldn't last."

Shinji turned slightly, regarding the stairwell vacantly. "We've found something, haven't we?"

The old man nodded gravely. "JACES can't provide enough cover for us to move the organisation. We'll have to split into regional cells, which almost guarantees that some of our comrades will be found. As a cause, however, we will live on. Neils will be in your care, and you will recruit young miss Himari into your cell, along with a second and a member from JACES. I will go elsewhere with Yakushuji-san and the rest of our command cell. Your job will be to lie low, observe and plan with me remotely. And perhaps to try to extract information from Neils. I suggest a medium-term outlook."

Turning pale, Shinji dropped his head to study the ground. "You want me...to take Himari-san into my cell? And then play Adam and Eve while our men get chopped down by SEELE, and you and Ms. Monami work out how to handle Keele. Is that right?"

"Well...the Adam and Eve part..."

Shinji crumbled down until he was sitting against the wall. "...is this the only way? Abandon you, bring Himari into all of this...and for what? Why are we fighting SEELE, or whatever they are, anyway? What if Project E really doesn't exist anymore? What exactly is it that we're fighting?"

Kouzo shrugged. "That remains to be seen. Knowing SEELE was founded on the most morally bunkrupt and unscrupulous fellows in power doesn't fill me with confidence in their ability to lead humanity into a better future. At best, they'll shape the world for their comfort, Caligula-style and play Yakuza-games with each other. In time, perhaps we could rise from that, and perhaps it beats the uncertain anarchy that keeps breaking out. But if it's worse...well, we'll have to find that nut before we can figure out how to crack it."

"And you're going to hunt it."

"While you sit, wait, consolidate and hopefully prepare to become a rather effective nutcracker, yes."

Shinji ran a hand through his hair fretfully. "I hope this is worth it."

The Old Man could only give him a sad smile as reassurance.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #11

* * *

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Shinji glanced at a digital clock as he came in from the darkness outside and his nightly excercise regime. In the gloom, it read 3:30.

After a shower, he went to the kitchen of the little house, leaving the lights off. Pulling an instant-breakfast tetra-pack from the fridge, he stifled a yawn. Placing the drink on the bench, he opened a cupboard and pulled out a box of pills. Popping two pills in his mouth, he washed them down with the breakfast drink.

Moving to the stairwell, Shinji pulled a hidden door open and stepped through, carefully closing it behind him. The small stairwell led him into a dimly-lit, cramped basement space filled with jury-rigged, sometimes outdated and sometimes damaged, communications equipment. Seating himself by a small terminal, he began typing on a grimey keyboard.

LINKTO WS3

Q-OPTICAL LINK OK

LOAD SCRED 115728

WAIT...SECURITY INTERROGATION IN PROGRESS.  
SYSTEM ID CONFIRMED...SCANNING INTEGRITY STATUS.  
ENTER USER ID, PWD, TENDENCY.

The mysterious and complex security exchange continued for some minutes before Shinji finally had access. The MAGI-3 installation (Berlin) had somehow survived Impact, in a limited fashion, to be able to serve Shinji and Futusuki's movement. With a little help from an old friend.

It had meant a lot to Shinji, that someone still had faith in them.

Having scanned reports, messages and plan updates, he closed the connection. He didn't dare send any messages himself - Shinji's job was to maintain a secret and untraceable unit.

"Staying out of trouble, as ordered." Shinji said quietly. "Cowardly hiding while you do the hard work, Kouzo-san."

With a sigh and a stretch, the young man stood and headed up to his room, to put on his work uniform. It was time to start a new day.

* * *

Dr. Neils looked up from her weeding, a small spade in her hand and gardening apron resplendent with daffodils. "Oh, another present from Grey Bear." she muttered.

A truck was backing up the driveway to the den, aka Shinji's Lovely Home (mkII). Neil shook her head and walked over to the driver's side.

"A delivery for Mr T. Wulf, I presume?" she asked, her cynical brow set to disdain.

"Mmm. Tractor." replied the driver, a heavy set man who, in all honesty, could have used a good wash. Jumping down from the cab, he led the good Doctor to the rear of the truck and rolled up the door. A somewhat rusty and decrepit tractor sat discontentedly. To Neils, it seemed to be crying out for a paddock to fall apart in.

"Okay, back in over there." she muttered, grabbing the keys to a large and greasy padlock that held secure a large and greasy machinery shed.

Tomoko Satoshi, a strongly-built woman who would not brook being called a 'lady', directed the truck into the shed as Neils pulled the doors closed. "So, what have we got?"

A digital voice blared with childish, comic tones. "Tachikoma! Sentient AI-tanks at your service, Wulf-san!"

The tractor faded in a flash of static as the blue six-legged light-tank appeared beneath the facade. With a bounce of it's suspension, the sensor ball atop the tank swung around to focus on Tomoko and the tank jumped lithely down from the truck, followed by two brethren who chirped in with their own greetings.

"Ikari-san, Ikari-san!" they chanted together, gathering around Tomoko after briefly exploring their immediate surroundings like curious toddlers (with six wheels each).

Rolling her eyes, Tomoko crossed her arms accross her chest. "I'm Agent Satoshi. Ikari is working today. And don't refer to him as 'Wolf' or 'Ikari' unless you have to.

"Awww..."

"So sorry!"

"My mistake."

Carol Neils sighed. "Great. The under-cover team are gifted with a trio of pre-pubescent think-tanks equipped with hazy recognition software."

Satoshi grimaced. "I suppose they're supposed to be adorable or something. Team bonding."

"Mari will love them." Neils noted.

"Ahem." The truck driver made himself noticed. "There's one more item. But I'm only supposed to release it to Ikari."

"He won't be home until midnight." Neils frowned. "You'll have to wait around until then."

The driver shook his head. "Can't - my cover's too thin. But before you ask, the thing's imprinted to Ikari. We can't move it without him. You'll have to call him home early."

One of the Tachikomas, which had leapt onto a hay loft in the meantime, held up a manipulator arm like a schoolchild. "Ooh! I can move it! Let me!"

Another stared at the first tank. "We can't push it off, it's latched on."

The third nodded it's head-pod up and down in agreement. "Mmm, mmm. It's stronger than it looks."

"Not if we do it...electronically!" replied the first. To the bewilderment of all the humans around, the truck shifted, the box squealing in mild protest to the shimmering movement on top. Neils reflexively fell back a step, a look of horror on her face as Satoshi pulled her firearm from a hidden holster and assuming a firing position.

Suddenly, too quickly to follow, the shimmering mass pushed the truck onto the borrom of it's suspension and leapt upwards. With a thud, the invisible thing pounded two over-sized foot marks into the shed's soil floor.

"Very clever." admonished the second Tachikoma. "Now disable it's thermal-cloak!"

The first held up it's arms sheepishly. The mass became an upright robot suit, resplendent in carbon-grey armour with white highlights.

"Let me guess. For Ikari." Satoshi lowered her gun and holstered it again. "I thought he was over the fighting robots stage."

The truck driver scratched the back of his neck with a sigh. "Ah, I guess that solves that one. Too bad, I was looking forward to seeing him again."

Neils looked at him curiously. "You knew Shinji?"

He nodded, ironic grin gracing his lips. "Yeah, though we didn't really speak much. I was at NERV."

Tomoko tilted her head. "Well, he's working in a small restaurant in town. Why don't you call in, have dinner or something?"

"Hmm. Maybe. He's the cook right?" he queried as Neils opened the doors again.

"You guessed it."

The man grinned. "It wasn't really a guess. I remember the Major talking about his cooking in the old days. Well, I might do that, though I doubt he'll recognise me."

With a wave, the man climbed up to the cab of his truck. A belch and a roar saw the truck away, as Tachikoma-1 waved and Tachikoma-3 mock-choked on the smoke.

* * *

Shinji walked into the house, closing the door gently behind him. "I'm home." he called out, taking his shoes off.

"To keep you informed, I'm only doing my own clothes. Don't expect me to look after yours." Neils said pointedly, holding her nose up as she passed with a basket of her own clothes. "As my warden, I'm informing you that the Geneva Convention has a provision for cleanliness and hygiene. You should be washing mine for me."

The former Third Child rolled his eyes. "I suppose I could, if you'll be content to wear jail-bird rags."

"You and that girl can keep your cosplay to yourselves, thankyou."

Shinji wisely decided to ignore the jab and went to get changed out of his cooking garb. "I hear we have some new acquisitions."

"Out in the shed. It's going to be fun explaining the electricity bill when those money guzzlers need a recharge."

"I'll acquire a utility truck to cover for it. Take Mari on trips into the countryside."

Carol's voice grated with cynacism. "The Irregulars will use it on training runs. It'll just make us look more like an armed reserve unit...funny that."

The young man snorted in disgust as he emerged from his room. "Fine, I'll get a sports car and tell everyone that you steal it during the day."

"Make it a Porsche. If I'm going to pretend to be your Grandmother, then I'm entitled to some perks. It's your cover to blow, not mine. I'm under duress."

"You're having the most stress-free, relaxing time of your life."

"And it's killing me. I'm a scientist, not a hobby-farmer." Neil grated from the laundry.

"You're a politician and a bureauocrat."

"If she hadn't been sucked into a robot, I'm sure your mother would have brought you up not to use language like that."

With a small 'hmmph', Shinji collapsed onto the couch. Neils joined him. "I take it Hyuuga found you?"

He nodded. "I was surprised to see him. Surprised that...he had come back."

She looked at him with curiousity.

With a shrug, Shinji answered her look. "I had heard that he was in love with my guardian. She died...before Impact."

Sagely, Neils nodded. "I know."

Shinji looked at her with a small frown. Saying nothing, he looked away.

"Well, if you're finished moping you should go and inspect the new toys."

"Okay..." sighing, Shinji stood up. "They're from JACES right? Not salvaged from a NERV project?"

"So I hear."

With a nod, the former Third Child balled a fist. "Right. Lets hope none of them are equipped with a 'raging maternal instinct' mode."

* * *

All business, Shinji entered the shed in his 'flight suit', a plugsuit-like uniform, but less adorned with equipment or embellishments and darkly hued. He walked over to Satoshi, who was seated at a work bench perusing a technical schematic. "Satoshi. How are the new procurements?"

"New recruits, more like it. Oh, the equipment is first-rate, you must have some good connections. But those Tachikomas...whoever did their AI development was a reckless bastard."

"Tachikomas?" Shinji asked, looking first at the Arm-Suit standing ominously in the middle of the room, then at the three sentient tanks in various exploratory repose - it was a moment before he noticed the one clinging precariously to the roof beam, upside-down. "Some sort of...spider tank maybe?"

Satoshi stood, nodding slightly. "That's a good call. Highly versatile, moderate stealth and electronic warfare capability, and enough personality to fill a season of Iron Chef. Their AI appears to be an active-learning type, and boy do they enjoy it."

"What about the humanoid unit?"

She smirked. "I think that one's for you. There's a paper letter in the cockpit addressed to you."

One of the frozen Tachikoma tilted it's body somewhat. "Ikari Shinji-sama?"

"Shinji-sama?!"

"Wolf-san?!"

The three Tachikoma quickly gathered around the bewildered former-pilot, fawning over him as only sentient tanks can. Shinji frowned. "'Wolf-san'?"

"Seems you're something of a celebrity, even among mecha."

Barely surpressing a growl, Shinji swept past the sentient tanks who quickly moved out of his way. "Did we do something wrong?" wandered one Tachikoma.

Walking over to the Arm-Slave, he quickly identified what appeared to be a latch and tried to pull it. It glowed a pale orange, then green before releasing to his touch. Inside, he found the envelope that had been mentioned. He paled when he saw his name scrawled on it with long, flowing script, punctuated with little stick-on love hearts.

Neils limped into the building, her cane crunching on the gravelly floor as she approached. "So? What does it say?"

With a sigh, Shinji opened it. "It's from Monami-san. Seems this is something of a 'Valentines Day' present."

"Oh, oh!" cried one Tachi, which took a small package from it's cargo pod and quickly rolled over to the long-suffering man and holding it out to him.

Neils, now within swiping-range, took it for inspection. "Hmm. Lindt chocolate. Not bad."

Now Mari entered the shed, her small form lit from behind by the orange light of dusk. Sparing a brief look for Shinji and Dr. Neils, she made straight for the nearest of the three Tachikoma. The robotic tank held it's fingers together pensively as the girl stared critically into it's triple-lensed sensor orb.

"Excellent." She said, causing the blue tobot to flinch backwards in surprise. It backed away as she reached out to it's abdominal pod.

"Open up."

The Tachikoma reared up in surprise, and looked to Shinji for guidance.

He shrugged. "I'd do it, if I were you..." he cautioned cryptically.

Timidly, the Tachikoma obediently opened the top hatch on it's abdominal cavity. Mari reached and peered in eagerly. "Hmmm...good...ah, cool..."

Neils and Shinji exchanged looks, wryly.

Finally, Mari extracted herself from the machine's belly. "Perfect." she declared, causing the other two Tachikoma to clap their manipulator hands cheerfully.

Shinji walked over to the odd pair. "What's so perfect?" he asked.

Mari reached back in to the tank and held up a small rifle and plastic visor. "Paint ball."


End file.
